‘Neighbours’ New Gay Love Triangle Refreshes Australian TV
Image: neighbours / Instagram
Australian home-grown soap opera, Neighbours, has launched its first gay love triangle, sending viewers into a frenzy of excitement.
The long-running Australian TV classic, Neighbours, known for its wild romances and drama-packed friendships of the residents in Ramsay Street, has now established an exciting new plot twist. The recently developed gay love triangle creates new heights for LGBTQIA+ representation on Australian TV.
Nonetheless, this is not Neighbours‘ first move in challenging boundaries in Australian TV. In 2018, the evergreen TV show aired Australia’s first-ever on-screen same-sex wedding. Now, seven years later, the audience is seeing the representation of the LGBTQIA+ community yet again on their screens, placed in the small, knit community of Ramsay Street.
Team Rhett or Team Colton?
The exciting new love triangle centres around Matt Wilson’s character, Aaron Brennan, following the death of Brennan’s husband, David Tanaka (Takaya Honda).
Whilst Aaron explores the new trials and tribulations of the dating scene, he struggles to move on and find connections. That is, until characters, Rhett Norman and Colton Keys, Aaron’s ex-lovers, start to compete for the widower’s affection.
The competition revs up between Aaron’s potential suitors when they all attend a yoga class. Between cobra poses and balancing acts, the trio’s yoga session becomes a competition for the best man; push-ups and peacocking become the main attraction.
However, with the help of Nicolette Stone, the character played by Hannah Monson, Aaron eventually decides to date the two men at the same time.
Between the romance of Aarons two ex-partners, the representation of queer love is alive and well on Ramsay Street and the Australian classic tv show, Neighbours. Creating LGBTQIA+ representation that will make viewers across Australia feel seen and validated.
Audience and actors celebrate the progressive storyline
Actor Liam Maquire told Yahoo Lifestyle in a recent interview that “reading the scripts I kept finding myself laughing and that felt like the most progressive thing about the storyline, that it’s so confidently queer while being able to be funny and playful because all the characters are entirely comfortable with who they are”
Similarly, Jakob Ambrose, in an interview with Yahoo lifestyle, adds that “It definitely was something I recognised reading these scripts that we were going to be given the chance to portray queer characters in a really fun, messy, playful, honest way. It’s not so reverent and polite,”
Jack Ambrose furthers to add that, “I think it’s important that all our colours are seen on screen – the happy family, but also the messiness it sometimes takes to get there. Working with Liam and competing in a way has been the best way to be forced to step it up.”
The Neighbours audience, similarly, praises the progressive storyline, with viewers online fuelling the debate on whether they are Team Rhett, Team Colton, or the most popular option of both. The Neighbours social media page is filled with users’ comments debating the competition, with most users wanting the love triangle to develop into a throuple. With Instagram users commenting “Rhett all the way!” and another saying “Colton!! Rhett isn’t the right match for Aaron.”
Unfortunately, the plot twist comes not long before Neighbours is intended to be terminated in December, which was announced in February.
As Neighbours come to a close, viewers are feeling the loss and want a big bang to close the show. With one user posting “the series is ending. Go out in style and let him choose both”.
